C N McGrail - women's writes Podcast

With the arrival of The Odyssey in cinemas, in this episode, I turn to Eris — the Greek goddess of discord — as a way of thinking about feminine disruption, conflict and the women history has so often cast as dangerous. Moving between Greek myth, Baba Yaga, Hekate, the demonised ‘witch’ and the women silenced or punished for speaking too loudly, I explore the possibility that these so-called troub...

Tennyson once wrote, “'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” As I prepare to publish my new chapbook this week, I wanted to share one of the companion pieces that appears at the back of the collection. Photograph of a Swing Boat grew from one of the poems but became something different: a meditation on memory, identity, love and the strange way photographs collapse ti...

Caroline explores how the Essex landscape shaped the life of her great-grandmother Susanna. Through reflections on estuaries, dialect, seasonal rhythms, and ancestral connection, she considers the role of place in shaping identity across generations. Get full access to Ada Gardener - women's writes at adagardener.substack.com/subscribe

In Part 2 of her exploration of the Ghent Altarpiece, Caroline examines alternative interpretations centred on Mary Magdalene and the divine feminine. Through symbolism, sacred geometry, landscape, and feminine imagery, she reflects on women's spiritual authority, forgotten histories, and the enduring presence of the feminine within Christian tradition. Get full access to Ada Gardener - women's wr...

Caroline explores the myth of Sedna and other feminine water myths as a way of understanding authenticity, inherited beliefs, and women’s relationship with identity and selfhood. A reflective episode about feminine power, ancestral patterns, and returning to ourselves. Get full access to Ada Gardener - women's writes at adagardener.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, I travel alone to the Belgian city of Ghent to visit one of the world’s greatest artistic treasures: The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb . Drawn there by years of reading and reflection around Mary Magdalene, the divine feminine, and women’s place within spiritual history, I approach the Ghent Altarpiece not as an art historian, but as a woman searching for meaning. Standing before V...

In this episode, I reflect on the idea of “capacity": what it means, who defines it, and why so much of it is still expected of women. Through the story of my great-grandmother Susanna, who raised twelve children while building a life out of poverty, I explore the hidden labour women have always carried. I also consider how those expectations persist today, shaped by modern work, family life, and...

In this episode, I explore the quiet power of furniture—how the objects we inherit carry memory, identity, and untold histories. From my father’s childhood desk to a walnut bureau that once belonged to my great-grandmother Susanna, these pieces hold stories of survival, education, and ambition. They also reveal something deeper: how women’s lives, so often absent from official records, are preserv...

Every family has its stories. The ones told and retold until they harden into truth. In this episode, I begin to unravel the myth of my great-grandmother, Susanna—a woman I’ve come to see as both extraordinary and deeply unknowable. According to family lore, she rose from poverty, bought land, built a house, and created a thriving business against all odds. But the deeper I look, the less certain...

On Good Friday, we’re told a story about death and resurrection. But what if that story didn’t begin with Christianity—and what if, at its heart, it has always belonged to women? In this episode, I step away from my family history to explore a different kind of inheritance: the ancient, often hidden, feminine thread running through the story of Easter. From Mary Magdalene—the first witness to the...

In this first episode, Caroline reflects on the moment that inspired her new writing project: a visit to her family’s graves and the discovery of her great-grandmother’s epitaph. Prompted by the words “Her life was sorrow and suffering,” she begins a journey to uncover and tell the story of an ordinary woman from the past. Get full access to Ada Gardener - women's writes at adagardener.substack.co...